Kewell: We played Luton off the park

Crawley Town boss Harry Kewell felt Luton were lucky to leave the Checkatrade Stadium with a point during Saturday’s goalless draw.

The hosts had gone into the game with just one win on home soil this season, but threatened throughout, with Jordan Roberts missing a glorious chance in the second half, while he was also denied twice by Marek Stech.

I knew exactly what they were going to do, and we played them off the park.

Harry Kewell

However, Hatters weren’t without their moments either, Elliot Lee hitting the post, James Collins sending a free header wide and Glen Rea forcing a good save from Glen Morris, but speaking afterwards, Kewell said: “I felt we deserved more of the game, I felt we played them to a tee.

“I knew exactly what they were going to do, and we played them off the park.

“I was surprised really that they didn’t really change it up, so we stuck to our gameplan and I thought we looked dangerous throughout.

“It was difficult conditions in the game, but the team played excellent, we looked very determined, we just lacked that killer instinct up top.

“If I get performances like that you’ll not only get a happy manager, you’ll get a happy club.

“Everyone hand on heart and he’ll (Nathan Jones) probably say different, but I think if he was truthfully honest he will say he was lucky to get a point here today.”

The final whistle brought huge cheers from the home fans, who had only witnessed one victory from their previous seven games at the Checkatrade Stadium, with six defeats too.”

Kewell thought they have should have been celebrating three points though, as he added: “I am sure they (the fans) would be a little bit upset because I felt we deserved the game.

“Don’t get me wrong, Luton are a fantastic team; they hit the bar, they’ve got great players up front, they’ve great movement, great goalscorer they’ve taken from us (James Collins) so they’ve got armoury and look to counter-attack a lot.

“I felt we stopped that and picked a lot of the second balls up and played.

“I felt my team performed exactly the way I wanted them to play this team.

“I felt we looked dangerous, especially going forward both halves. We just lacked that killer pass to get the goal because that was how close it was in the end.

“We are doing the right things; we just need to be a little bit more hungrier, a little bit more determined, we are heading in the right direction.”